Former England captain Mike Atherton summed up the feelings of shocked fans after the side's stunning four-wicket loss to rank outsiders the Netherlands in the World Twenty20 opener here at Lord's.

"If England can't beat a country that has 6,000 cricketers and seven grass pitches...," Atherton said while broadcasting on Sky Sports.

He did not finish the sentence but then again he did not need to after what was England's most humiliating defeat in any form of one-day cricket.

After being 102 without loss, a succession of England batsmen threw their wickets away on Friday following a century stand between Ravi Bopara (46) and Luke Wright (71).

And while the hosts could not manage a single six, the Dutch - a side mainly made up of part-timers - slammed four.

Man-of-thee-match Tom de Grooth led the way with 49 off 30 balls including a six and six fours as the non-Test playing Associate side reached their target of 163 off the last ball of the innings.

De Grooth works as a cricket coach in the Netherlands and, after this match, several ex-England players made it clear it was the home side who could do with a few lessons.

"It was a shambolic performance in the end - it shaded on embarrassing at times," former England opener Nick Knight said. "We should never have lost a game like that.

England, who were without the injured Kevin Pietersen, must now beat Pakistan at the Oval on Sunday to have a chance of qualifying for the second stage Super Eights and Knight said all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas had to be given a chance after being left out at Lord's.

"Who knows what would have happened if we'd had two overs from Mascarenhas at the end maybe? It might have changed the innings.

"I'm dumbfounded why Mascarenhas doesn't get in that side.

Nasser Hussain, another former England captain who, like Atherton and Knight is a member of the Sky commentary team, said: "Holland looked very nervous for the first 10 overs, like the occasion got to them.

"But when they started to believe England started thinking 'we might be one or two players short here'.

"I'm not sure about the England tactics, or the balance of the side.

"There was no Mascarenhas, no Graham Napier. A lot of nudgers and nurdlers but no big hitters."

Meanwhile Atherton said Collingwood, leading the side in place of Test skipper Andrew Strauss - who didn't rate himself a good enough Twenty20 player to take part in the tournament - was not making a success of his second spell as England one-day captain.

"I don't think he's the right man - he didn't show a lot of aptitude first time around."

However, Atherton added: "The (England) batting was ordinary in the last 10 overs but Holland did a lot of good things right. They caught the ball, ran brilliantly between the wickets and kept their nerve until the end."